Friday, 1 May 2015

Fake Law: HIV positive persons to have tattoo saying so in South Africa

The news of a controversial bill for HIV positive individuals to have tattoos of their status on their private part was first reported by Satire news late in January but it only went viral in April. Personally, I do not believe this story is entirely true and will be waiting for to see how it plays out.Here's the report from Satire news:

"President Zuma signed a bill that seem to be the greatest step in history of trying to combat HIV. From now on every person who gets tested and found to be HIV positive would not just get counselling and medication. They would also get a mark in a form of a tattoo near their genital according to the bill singed by the president.

“The mark is to protect those who can’t say no to sex. I mean if you can’t read between the lines you should read between the legs because that’s where the status would be tatted. The choice to be HIV positive is now in your hands or your genitals for that matter….We also encourage those who had been living with the virus to go to the nearest public hospitals to get their status tatted in”. Said Jacob Zuma after signing the bill and drinking his ARV’s.

President Zuma volunteered to be the first South African citizen to get his status tatted near his genitals and he also announced that the first 10 million people(who already tested positive) to volunteer to have their HIV statuses tatted on their genitals would be given a R50 000 funeral expense voucher.

In a country where almost every sexual active person is more likely to be HIV positive hopefully this would help.

Below is an example of HIV positive tattoo."

When I checked online, I found an assortment of HIV tattoos most likely unrelated to South Africa. See some below.